Amy Butler, senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, joined 13 other faith leaders opposing laws to allow businesses to deny services to gay and lesbian customers based on their religious beliefs.

Has anybody out there noticed that church attendance has been lower lately? The church budget is stretched thin because fewer people are giving? You can’t get a commitment out of people who are so busy they are already making summer plans — for next summer? Welcome to the reality of church decline.

Hands down my favorite question to ask people in casual conversation is: Why do you go to church? I often wonder what compels people -- what compels me -- to offer so much of my life to the work of the institutional church. It is, after all, an institution that occasionally has a few problems.

When I left seminary, I was just dying to get into a pastorate so I could try out all the good ideas that had been germinating through all those hours and hours of sitting in a seminary classroom. I believe I suspected that, if I could just get a chance, I could take everything I’d learned and completely transform the church.